Russian drugs boss rules out marijuana legalization

The head of Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service has called marijuana a dangerous gateway drug and said the authorities did not plan to legalize it, or to allow methadone treatment for heroin addicts.

“Marijuana users have a 50 or 60 times higher risk of
switching to heroin. There is one step from dope to heroin,”
Viktor Ivanov said in an interview with the Interfax news agency.
Quoting unnamed medical research he said that those who smoke
marijuana for recreational purposes later suffer from
depression,dissatisfaction with life and schizophrenia.

Ivanov completely ruled out the possibility of legalizing
marijuana in Russia, saying that such a move would put people in
danger if it were used by air traffic controllers, bus and taxi
drivers and the like.“Today we live in the age of high
technology, a lot of things are managed with the help of computer
systems. Someone who works at a nuclear power plant can wreak
real havoc after smoking marijuana,” the official added.

The top Russian drug enforcer also questioned the effectiveness
of modern measures taken to help drug addicts, such as methadone
and handing out clean syringes. He said that there was no
reliable evidence that methadone therapy was effective, and some
European countries were disappointed with such programs. “If
we want to hand out syringes we should do it in places with
addicts, to prevent the spreading of diseases. If there are no
addicts why would we give syringes to the people? Who would
approve of people handing out syringes near his own home?”
Ivanov told the agency.

Previously the head of the Russian drug enforcement agency
opposed the legalization of soft drugs, both in Russia and in
other countries. In December last year Ivanov said that Uruguay’s
moves towards marijuana legalization was a mistake.

Russia has strict drug laws with no distinction between soft and
hard drugs and lengthy prison sentences for dealing and
trafficking. At the same time, addiction to drugs is not
criminalized and treatment of addicts is strictly voluntary.

About 8.5 million Russians use drugs and psychoactive substances
according to a government report published in mid-2013. However,
the Health Ministry puts the number of drug addicts registered at
specialist dispensaries at about 600,000.